Mighty Mud Mania 2010

Mighty Mud Mania is an annual event in Scottsdale where all those rules about getting dirty go out the window. Check it out here. We'd love to have you join us next year!

At first, Ruby was content just being a spectator.

But she quickly picked up on what was going on.

Carter was digging the idea of mud pies.


They both built sand castles for a while.

This picture explains the diaper full of sand the next day.

We played 'til we were ready to drop from the heat and excitement. After a hose down from the volunteers, we headed home. Carter was disappointed to learn he has to wait a whole year to do it again.

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April 2010 Recap

Ruby's first ponytail - 4/1/2010

I adore this picture...I'm wearing her in the sling and she is enjoying the full-service treatment!

Papago Park-4/2/2010
My cute friend Jenny invited the kids and me to hang out with her and her family at Papago Park for an Easter Egg hunt and picnic. I'd never been, so it was lots of fun and the weather was awesome. Carter even found the "golden egg" with money in it! I didn't get a lot of pictures, but here are a few of the kids hanging out.

Hugo is one of Carter's favorite buddies.
Carter and Lacy had fun rolling eggs down the hill.

Acacia came too. She's a fabulous babysitter and a sweetheart!
Bunny Day and General Conference - 4/3/2010
It was the tradition in my family growing up to celebrate "Bunny Day" on the Saturday before Easter every year. The Easter Bunny brings us treats on Saturday so that we can focus on Jesus and the resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Carter especially loved his Transformer's coloring book.
I think Ruby liked her stuffed bunny.

Shane made Carter's favorite: star-shaped "egg-in-a-holes" sprinkled with cheese.
It was LDS General Conference weekend the same weekend as Easter, so we enjoyed snuggling and hanging out together all weekend watching conference. Growing up, my siblings and I made "nests" of blankets and pillows from which we watched the conference each Spring and Fall. Shane tried to show Carter how to build a proper nest and CJ had fun with it...until it was time to clean up and put it all away of course.
We took a walk between sessions.

Brad's Mission Call! - 4/6/2010
If you read the blog regularly (or know us personally at all), you know we have a very close relationship with Shane's Uncle Joe and Aunt Claudia. They live just a few blocks away and have been so wonderful to us since we arrived in AZ four years ago. Carter and Ruby know them as Nana and Grandpa. Carter said Nana before Momma, I'm pretty sure.

Anyhow, Bradley (Joe and Claudia's son) received his LDS mission call to the Chile Santiago North mission. We are so excited for him! He will be a hard-working, wonderful missionary. I found out a few days after he got his call that his mission president will be Presidente May, who was in my stake in Valencia growing up, and then moved to UT around the time my parents did. Elder Hilton will be in great hands there with Presidente and Hermana May! Brad graduates from high school at the end of May and reports to the Missionary Training Center on June 16th. Brad's mission call was especially exciting for the family because Brad is the youngest child, only boy, and will be only one to serve a full-time mission (as a young adult anyway) of his siblings.
Here is Elder Hilton with his proud parents.

Fun side note: The map in the background was posted after Brad's papers were turned in and the wait for his call began. The colored markers were guesses from friends and family of where Brad's call would be to. Joe, Brad's dad, noticed nobody had guessed Chile just a couple of days before the call was opened and tagged it as his guess.

Ruby is eight months old - 4/18/2010
Shane already posted a bunch of eight month pictures, but I wanted to include this one in the April recap to note that she was not only standing, but taking steps at eight months. I was not encouraging this. I absolutely blame her father...and I have witnesses.
Oh, but I do have to say she melts me. {swoon}

Rocker, Parties, & Prom - 4/24/2010
Carter for some reason has a love for rock and roll. He often asks us to "rock" with him. We've scored some sweet band equipment from yard sales and a clearance sale and now we have three toy guitars and a toy microphone with karaoke machine. We jam a lot. Fast forward to cute Cambria's dress-up birthday party. We gave Carter all his dress-up options (Spiderman, pirate, etc.) and he chose rocker. Love these pictures Shane took before the party.

{Notice cliche "Mom" tattoo I drew on his right shoulder and scorpion tattoo dad gave him on his left forearm.}

Carter and Ruby went with Shane to a second friend's party that afternoon while I had the pleasure of taking pictures of Brad and his darling date, Allison, before their prom. I had so much fun with them. Thanks you two!


Lastly, I spent most of April working furiously in every spare moment to prepare for the opening of my etsy shop, Ruby Jane Boutique, and Boutique in the Barn (which was May 1st). The boutique was a lot of fun and although the shop only has one listing so far, it will have many more items listed soon!

Thanks for all your support everyone!

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Helaman Hall Honeys

I was blessed to make some amazing friends for life while living in the dorms at BYU my freshman year of college ('99-'00). We managed our first reunion in Texas in October 2008. Ever since then, we'd been saying we needed to get together again. We decided kind of last minute to hurry and get together before Emily's second son was born (he's on his way in the next few weeks!). We quickly pulled off another reunion, this time in Colorado, since Emily was so close to her due date. We had a blast chatting, eating yummy food, and laughing a lot! We already decided that our next reunion will be a cruise or rented beach house getaway. :)

All of us
(l to r: Cynthia, Me, Emily, Alycia, and Katie)

Alycia and Katie
Emily and Cynthia
On one of our days together, we decided to brave the cold and go out for lunch and window shopping on Pearl Street in Boulder. We didn't last long, though, as it started snowing down on us pretty hard. Here's Cyn with her sweet little guy Bergen (before the snow got going).
I don't think I've ever seen snowflakes that actually look like the pretty little graphics in books and cartoons. In Boulder, it apparently does snow perfect little crystalline snowflakes. Just check out the flakes in Katie's hair! We were pretty amazed by them and took lots of pictures of each others' hair. :)

See more pics of the reunion here, here, and here.

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December Wrap-up

Okay, so obviously the craziness that was December sent us spiraling into oblivion. Obviously. But we've returned! Never fear! Usually if we get behind, we go back and catch up with each post dated chronologically, but we'rs so far behind that this time we're just gonna post December catch-up in one lump of a post so we can move on with the New Year. Here goes!

I spent a good part of the first half of December creating hats, flower clips, and hair bows to sell at my cute friend Jenny's Boutique in the Barn. I didn't do incredibly well at the boutique, considering what I put into it, but I had lots of fun. I have a lot left over to sell, so coming soon, I will be opening my own etsy.com shop called Ruby Jane Boutique. Thanks to Cynthia at The Design Loft, I have a logo and everything. :)

I was pleasantly surprised to see this sweet picture hiding in the December file. Then I remembered Shane took it while Ruby slept on my shoulder and my heart swelled with LOVE!

Isn't she magnificent?

It got pretty cold (for Arizona) in December. We actually put our sweatshirt hoodies on. ;)
Oh my cute, right??

In December, all four of our parents came to visit and to meet baby Ruby for the first time. Here's Grandpa Russ with the kiddos:

We already shared one picture of Ruby in her white dress on her blessing day, but we can't get enough of her. :)

We all love Carter's birth momma (and Ruby's too, or course)!

Carter in his new r house shirt.

This is Ashley. And Ruby, this blog's personal diva.

I met Ashley on my fourth birthday, I believe. That was the day my family moved from Utah to California and onto the same street as Ashley's family lived. She was two years old at the time. :) She quickly became my bestie/BFF. :) We liked playing dress up a lot. Bonus picture: Me, Tawny, Ashley sometime in the 80's

We were pretty much attached at the hip for the next 15 years until my family moved back to Utah and I went to BYU. One a year later, she came to BYU too, and then we even shared the same major and took classes together.
LOVE her to pieces.

Ashley gave me the best gift ever and came to visit and to be here for Ruby's sealing and blessing. Carter adores her for sure. Ashley is a Kindergarten teacher. I wish she could be his teacher when he starts Kindergarten in a couple of years. He would be in love! It made me so happy and comfortable having her here. We even got to have a girls night out shopping and eating! (Thanks Shane!) I love how she and I can always pick right up where we left off, no matter how long it's been. And I also love to listen to her stories, especially the ones about boys! ;)

This isn't the greatest picture, but it's the only one we've got. This was Christmas Eve dinner over at Joe and Claudia's. Thanks to Jon and Monica, we enjoyed yet another gourmet fabulous Dec. 24th dinner. Beautiful presentation and yum, yum, yummy food!

And best of all, we got to see Santa and "Mrs. Santa Claus" (as Carter called her) after dinner on Christmas Eve!
We can't believe December came and went so quickly! Same goes for 2009.
We wish you all the happiest New Year for 2010!

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November Flashback

Our November blog posts were almost entirely dedicated to adoption to celebrate National Adoption Month. It is such an integral and wonderful part of our lives that we love sharing our feelings about adoption any chance we get.

Here is a whirlwind look at what else was going on in our family last month:

The weather was beautiful and Carter couldn't get enough of being outside.

He and the Roobster loved being together. We had to break the sad news to Carter that he wouldn't be able to marry her, or Mommy, no matter how big he gets.

He came up with the craziest ways to have fun.

Megan treated us with some pumpkin apple streusel lovin' from the oven.

Ruby kept growing and loved entertaining herself in her Bumbo.

What's going on here? We were wondering the same thing. Apparently, the sun was too bright.

Ruby turned 3 months old (almost four by month's end).
(The onesie is from Mrs. R's etsy shop)

Thanksgiving at Joe & Claudia's was awesome!
That turkey centerpiece is a cake they received as a gift from the family of their exchange student, Alex.

We made the Yams & Apples.

Megan is completely smitten with our little one.

Ruby cashed in on the quiet time while everyone was eating.

The M family joined the crowd for Thanksgiving dinner. They had us take a family picture for them.

As did the P family the following day.

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